Can You Repeat That?
by XPGamer
Summary: My version of Harry having to repeat his life from the Express, all the way to his death. OOC!Harry. Don't expect too much canon here. "When you expect nothing, and gain everything; that's destiny" Miklo Velka (Blood In, Blood Out)


**This is a side project I've initiated in my off-time. I was going to add it to Random Ideas but decided to make it a fic instead. Now, as bad as I am about updating ToF and A Mother's Love, this one will only be updated whenever I'm stuck on the other two fics. This is my own version of a time/dimension traveling repeating Harry Potter fic.  
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**I've seen many done, and I'm not too thrilled the way most go. This is _my_ version of how things would play out.**

* * *

Harry sighed as he looked around the small compartment.

_'Here we go again.'_ He thought to himself.

Harry James Potter; The Lord of Potter and Black; The-Man-Who-Conquered; The new Dark Lord; The Leader of the Light; The Master of Death...

_'So many titles, so many centuries, so many repeats.'_

Back when Harry had first defeated Tom Marvolo Riddle, aka Voldemort, he hadn't thought anything of being "Master of Death" because he was the sole owner of all three of the Deathly Hallows. He had, at first, attempted to bury the Elder Wand with Dumbledore but the very next morning it had been there by his bedside laying right next to his Holly wand. He quickly returned the wand to Dumbledore's crypt but that was the only time he tried; the very next morning he awoke to the exact same sight of both wands laying besides each other, except this time something new happened. The wands merged before his very eyes.

Harry, in his resigned opinion, realized he had no choice and took the wand as his own; though he did force the merged foci to resemble the appearance of his Holly wand. It was without any hesitation that the Death Stick obeyed, Harry gathered that it didn't care what it looked like as long as it's "Master" was wielding it. Then, things got a little bit more difficult.

Death herself, _'go figure'_, appeared before him at that very moment, shrouded in complete darkness. Don't ask him how he knew Death was female.

_'Greetings, Master.'_ The whispery, and very distinctively _female_, voice spoke without prompt.

_'See, you just have to wait and see. No questions_ needed.'

Death had then gone on to explain to him that, along with the his newest title, he had a responsibility that no one had ever had.

Harry snorted at that, there was no real responsibility. He truly didn't have to do anything, not by choice, because there was _nothing_ to do. Death did her job as she had always done. Taking the souls of the departed and ferrying them to the beyond. Harry was supposed to be her "assistant" if any such term could actually be given to her "Master". Death had simply admitted that Harry had to be given _something_ to do in order to keep the balance and being her "assistant" was the simplest way. Him being her "Master" meant that she didn't want him doing anything he didn't want to do.

_'Hypocritical, really. Seeing as I'm still in these repeats.'_

So, with that one meeting, which Death claimed would be their one and only, Harry went on with his life. He married his love, Ginny Weasley and they went on to have three wonderful children. Hermione and Ron married as well and had a few sprogs of their own. Inexplicably, Harry named his youngest after Dumbledore and Snape. Even more unexplainable was Harry's friendship, or alliance, with Draco Malfoy of all people. The two practically ran the Ministry together. Draco as the Minister and Harry as the Director of the DMLE. Nothing happened in the magical world without his and Draco's approval.

_'Heh, never sat right with Ron that I became so buddy-buddy with a former-snake.'_

Then again, it never sat right with Ron when Harry admitted once, while deeply inebriated, that the Sorting Hat had considered Slytherin for Harry. He shrugged, it didn't matter really. Harry died at the age of one-hundred and thirteen. He had had many grandchildren, great-grandchildren and even great-great-grandchildren; in fact, one of his eldest great-great-grandchildren had even helped add another "great" to the list.

_'Pfft, little trollop. Couldn't keep her legs closed if you hit her with a Locomotor Mortis.'_ He seriously regretted giving his consent to that marriage between Miley and that Weasley boy. Neither had any scruples, nor virtues, to speak of. The boy was just as ravenous for any edible food he could get his grubby hands on and that included Harry's granddaughter. Miley on the other hand, surprisingly unbeknownst to Harry and Miley's parents, was a walking sex-toy while in Hogwarts and after her graduation she was even worse. The two only wanted to be married because the boy had gotten Miley pregnant and even as dense as she was Miley knew what would happen when her grandfather found out.

_'And when I _did_, I killed them both. Imagine that; don't know what they were so worried about.__'_ Really though, he could legally claim senility by then. He _was_ old. That was just the first repeat however, there were _so many_ more.

When Harry woke in that first repeat, and after realizing what had actually happened, he demanded Death show herself and explain what the hell was going on. Of course, that wasn't the best course of action because at that exact moment she had arrived, a young Ron Weasley appeared in the door of the compartment asking if he could enter. Harry, shocked at seeing one of his oldest friends alive and young again, had stood there in awe. That awe quickly changed to horror when Death, who had been seen by Ron somehow -she allowed him to see her-, reached out and touched the young ginger on the forehead. Harry could only stand there in shock, staring at the body of his friend. He never even noticed that Death had departed.

_'Then things got fun...'_ Hermione, a lot sooner than he remembered, appeared and was instantly screaming at the sight of Ron's corpse and Harry standing over it; obviously coming to the wrong conclusion. Harry didn't know why he did it, _'Thanks Death'_, but his wand was instantly out and what was supposed to be a minor _Stupify_ sent a dead-on-impact Hermione Granger, complete with a cave-in chest, through the wall of the train and out into the country side.

After that it was pandemonium. Harry still didn't realize he was being controlled by both Death and the Elder Wand and before he knew it the entire train was transformed into a crypt. Not a single soul survived. Harry was a mere spectator in his own body, despite resisting with his entire being, as the train arrived in Hogsmeade. Hagrid didn't even have a chance to speak before he was bifurcated. A single application of the _Fiendfyre_ curse wiped out Hogsmeade in a matter of minutes. Harry hadn't even watched, he simply _knew__. _His body, on the other hand, had floated,_ floated!_, to Hogwarts and within hours the castle resembled the Hogwarts' Express but on a much grander scale.

Harry was sitting in the Headmaster's seat in the Great Hall when Aurors poured in only to freeze at the gruesome sight. Severed heads, on pikes, where impaled into the benches at each House table. Even those from the Express (Harry had remembered who was to be Sorted where). The staff also were treated the same with the exception of Dumbledore, _his_ head had been quickly thrown at the Aurors. The one who had caught it had only been given enough time to widen his eyes before the head, mouth stuffed with a magical explosive, exploded taking out all those that had actually entered the Great Hall. Those behind were thrown back but quickly regained their footing and rushed in launching all manner of spells at Harry.

Before any could reach him, Harry aimed the Elder Wand at his own head and cast the _Avada Kedevra__. _

Then, Harry awoke in the compartment of the Hogwarts' Express. Death stood before him, calmly waiting. Harry, the _old_ Harry, would've exploded with passionate indignation or fury at what had just occured. The _old_ Harry would've brandished his wand at a truly immortal being as if he could actually harm her. He did nothing, however, except close his eyes in resignation and lean back in his seat.

_'I'm glad you understand, Master'_ And then she was gone.

* * *

Harry looked towards the door, and a moment later Ron Weasley's shy and awkward form appeared in the small window. The door slid open and the tall lanky boy took a step in.

"Uh, is it okay if I sit in here? Everywhere was already full." Harry sighed.

He knew this to be a lie, though there was nothing malicious about the deceit. Ron was simply to embarrassed to admit he had recognized the Boy-Who-Lived and wanted to sit with him. In his first life, Ron had admitted to this sometime in their fifties. Ron had "finally worked up the courage to reveal" this secret. Harry had simply asked why it took him so long to do so, he had been waiting since their second year. Ron stopped talking to Harry for nearly a month before coming back.

"Really?' He asked in a neutral voice. He stood up with a slight frown. 'I could've sworn I saw the three compartments ahead of this one were either empty or only had one or two people in it. They couldn't be full already, could they?" Harry always did this to see what reaction he got from Ron. To his initial surprise, the reaction sometimes varied. It all depended on what kind of world Harry was now in. While fundamentally the same, each repeat placed Harry in an alternate dimension. Sometimes his parents were alive (Those were his favorite repeats), sometimes Harry had grown up with a Pureblood family (Everything from the Weasleys, Lovegoods, and Bones to the Greengrasses, Changs, and Malfoys. On rare occasion, Delacour.). Interestingly enough, whenever Harry grew up with a family that had a daughter, he would more than likely end up married to the girl he had grown up with. You'd think there would be some sort of stigma there, either that or he had a sister-complex.

_'Daphne or Astoria; Susan; Ginny; Luna; Fleur or Gabrielle depending on their age.'_ He fondly recalled his usual wives in each repeat. He couldn't really place one over the other in general, though some repeats he found himself opposite of one of the girls he had been married to in a previous repeat. He absently wondered why he never tried to start a harem before shrugging off that thought. There was really no need. His thoughts were interrupted by Ron suddenly backpedaling out of the compartment waving his hands in front of him as if warding off Harry's approach.

"No, no! I, uh, well maybe I didn't look hard enough? Um, I'll go check and if...um, if I can't find somewhere I'll come back, yeah? Okay!" And with that, the boy was gone and Harry was about to let out a sigh before stopping himself. He didn't know what it was, but something about sighing irritated the hell out of him and it made it worse that he would catch himself sighing all the damn time.

_'So, from his defensiveness and quick retreat, he'll either end up in Ravenclaw this time or stick to the script by being a Gryffindor.' _It wasn't that surprising that Ron was actually a very intelligent person, he just chose not to do anything with it outside of chess. _'Right now, he's probably going over some plan or another and he'll either go with a blunt approach or come to the conclusion that he needed to research Harry in order to become his friend.'_ Harry didn't know why, when Ron engaged his brain that he had to turn it into some kind of chess game. Those types of Rons usually ended with he and Harry not being anything remotely near friends.

_'And, three, two, one.'_ At that moment a bewildered Hermione Granger entered the doorway and looked up at a bemused dark-haired boy.

"Um, hi. I'm Hermione Granger...' She started, obviously still caught off-guard by the retreating Ron she had just encountered and whatever it was that he had said to her. 'Have you seen a toad by chance? Another boy, Neville Longbottom, lost it and I'm helping him to find it."

Harry blinked, this was somewhat new. Hermione didn't sound bossy or even have an aura of intimidation about her. She actually seemed quite timid in her approach, had identified herself, her reason for being there, and the name of the person she was helping. He stopped himself from trying to figure this out because he wanted to be surprised. With that, he stepped forward and drew his wand causing the muggleborn to quickly step back in surprise and a little bit of fear. Harry smiled disarmingly and then pointed his wand down the corridor to his right.

"Accio." Nothing happened at first, and Harry simply stood there expectantly while he eyed Hermione who looked as if she badly wanted to say something but was pinned into motionlessness by his gaze. Before she could muster up the courage to, no doubt, tell him that he had cast the spell wrong due to not specifying what he wanted to summon as well as the fact that he shouldn't even know how to cast the spell yet, a small figure slammed into Harry's hand which he had raised in preparation; a quic_k _and silent _Locomotor_ that he used to slow Trevor's flight ensured the toad was unharmed upon landing in Harry's hand. Truth be told, he did this for himself more than he did the small amphibian, he had no desire to have a dead toad and it's entrails gripped in his palm. Nor did he want Hermione, and subsequently Neville, to have a reason to avoid him.

"Here you go, Ms. Granger.' He spoke cheerfully as he let the toad drop from his hand into hers. 'See you at Hogwarts." He called out as he made his way in the direction opposite of the one Hermione would have to take in order to return Trevor to his owner. Even with her burning curiosity, the girl would be _compelled_ to return the toad first before searching for Harry in order to get answers to her questions. As for Harry, he had a few questions and felt like getting them the difficult way and so, that is why he now found himself standing in the doorway to the compartment that held Daphne Greengrass, Pansy Parkinson, Cho Chang, and Susan Bones.

It was no surprise to him that these four were sharing a compartment. The two, usually, future Snakes were childhood friends and had known the future Puff due to social gatherings between Pureblood families that they had attended since they could first walk. The Ravenclaw was either here because of her families business ties with one of the girls or she had simply been invited to sit with the other three. It was one of the few constants of the repeats; these four friends. The only thing that could drive a wedge between them, admittedly, was Harry himself entering a romantic relationship with one of the girls. After all, he waited until at least third year before dating any of the girls his age...those that were older though...anyhow; these four always found each other somehow and would remain friend still graduation as long as Harry did not date any of them. Or if they weren't killed by Voldemort or one of his Death Eaters. It was also interesting to Harry that not a single one of them ever joined the Dark Lord's forces...that is, unless Harry did. Go figure.

"Good afternoon ladies. My name is Harry Potter, not to be confused with the Excalibur-wielding, dragon-slaying, apprentice-of-Merlin that many books have made my name out to be. Quickly, Ms. Parkinson? I understand you have a relative that works as a solicitor? I would owe you a favor if you would facilitate a meeting between he and I. Now!' He casually moved into the compartment, shutting it behind him, and sat between Susan and Daphne completely ignoring the surprised looks on all four girl's faces. 'I have many questions and my sources have led me to your compartment, so, shall I continue or shall I depart?"

Harry observed each girl's reaction to his entrance, no sooner had he finished speaking did the girls usher him back into the hallway so they could "deliberate". It was kinda funny, hearing them using such advanced terms for their age. On his part, he was older than dirt with as many repeats as he's gone through so he could be hypocritical about this.

Daphne had been shocked and slightly wary at his entrance which could only mean that she knew the _real_ him. That is to say, the _him_ that she had grown up knowing in this world. So he was obviously acting only slightly unlike himself or he was a prankster and Daphne, while perhaps not a past victim, was now wondering whether or not her time had finally come. This was both good and bad; good, because it meant that his family might be alive though he wondered about any siblings. Bad, because Daphne wouldn't be as open to him as she would've had she known absolutely nothing about him. Still, he had seen on anger or fear so that was a plus.

Pansy was much like Daphne but less wary. In fact, she had completely ignored Harry's mini-speech and been staring unblinking at him the entire time. She had nodded absently at his question and he knew he would have to ask again, whether or not his parents were still alive.

Susan and Cho had simply been shocked by his appearance. Susan had the same wariness that Daphne did but not to the same degree which made Harry wonder why, if they were indeed alive, his parents had no problems allowing their child to be so close to a Greengrass. Not that they were a Dark family or anything but being neutral was sometimes just as bad. Cho obviously didn't know him and was stereotypically appalled at how forward he had been. He knew a little bit about Chinese and Japanese culture and for him to just intrude upon a compartment full of females like he did and sit amongst them without giving them much of a chance to respond was a bit against traditional courting methods; not that Harry believed Cho was thinking along those specific lines. She probably didn't have much interaction with males who weren't family, yet that hadn't stopped the slightest blush from appearing on her face.

After sometime, the door slid open revealing a cool-faced Daphne. Her outward appearance was nearly flawless but her eyes gave her away.

"You may rejoin us, Potter." She said politely and stepped to the side in order to allow him in. He nodded his head in thanks, a small smile on his face, and he moved past her. He once again sat in the same spot he had when he first entered the space and waited as Daphne closed the door and, hesitantly, retook her spot to his left.

"I never expected a Slytherin from the Potter family." Pansy suddenly blurted out, and by the mortification on her face, it was clear she hadn't meant to say it aloud.

Harry chuckled. "Is it because I was so blunt when earlier? Almost as blunt as your comment just now." The pink hue that had already been on Pansy's face darkened and Daphne quickly stepped in to pull the attention off her friend.

"She's right though. I've never heard of a Potter ever being in anything other than Gryffindor. They have never been known for the carefully worded spiel that you gave us earlier. Telling us straight off that you aren't what has been written in those fiction novels; your verbiage towards Pansy when asking for a solicitor and I wouldn't believe you if you claimed to not know that Pansy is definitely for Slytherin and thus she'd be interested in why you would come to her for a solicitor and why you'd want one in the first place; telling us you wanted to ask questions and you included all of us as targets for answers yet you finish it all with a desire to know whether we'd simply accept and answer your questions or if we wanted you gone instead."

Harry blinked and then chuckled once again. "And you say _I'm_ the one who is so verbose?" Daphne ignored the attempt to fluster her and Harry smiled internally, she was always good at hiding her feelings, at least when her older years when she finally learned how to keep her emotions out of her eyes.

"Alright, alright. I knew, coming in here, that either you would readily accept me simply because of who the world believes me to be or you would reject me because of some past slight; whether by my family or me. So, I figured I'd do all that I could to catch everyone's attention and I assume that my plan paid off."

Susan giggled. "A Slytherin if I've ever seen one, though he's got a bit of Gryffindor in him." Harry looked towards her and winked, causing her to blush a bit.

"I was actually considering Hufflepuff, but if you think Slytherin is a better fit..." Susan's eyes widened in alarm and she made to retract her comment when Daphne held up a hand.

"He's trying to get a rise out of you in order to distract you from your own observation. Though I wonder why he feels he needs to." Daphne had not taken her eyes off him and Harry wondered how long she would keep it up. Susan, at her friend's words, had settled back in her seat and a small frown found it's way onto her face. Seeing this, Harry sighed and leaned back against the backrest of the seat.

"I apologize Ms. Bones. I have a bit of an issue with being judged before being known.' Seeing her once again shift into alarm Harry quickly put his hands up in a calming gesture. 'Don't take that as a slight against you. I'm not accusing you of anything, not really anyway. It's just a habit that I fall into whenever I hear someone make an assumption or generalization about me and I feel they are...incorrect." Harry did his best not to sound harsh and to reassure Susan he did not think negatively of her, the girl could be surprisingly thin-skinned at times and the smallest of slights or insults could cause her undue mental stress and even depression.

Hearing his words, Susan nodded slowly before offering a small smile which Harry returned easily. Daphne shifted next to him, obviously to get his attention once more so she could find out what he wanted.

_'Probably wants to be totally sure this isn't some trick or prank. Either that or she wants me gone.'_ As he turned towards her, cutting off Daphne before she could speak, Cho spoke up.

"Which House do you truly wish to go into then?" Her voice was quiet but not too much to where he'd be hard-pressed to hear it. She was actually a soft-spoken individual her first two years of Hogwarts and didn't really start opening up and being the Cho Chang he had known and met on the Quidditch field until the second semester of her third year.

"I actually have no preference, though I suppose I would say with certainty that I don't want to end up in Gryffindor." This seemed to completely shock the four girls and Harry grinned as he continued.

"It goes back to not liking assumptions being made about me. If I go into Gryffindor, people are going to have these expectations that I'm like my parents or I'm just being the same old Boy-Who-Lived that they read about. However, if I go to a different House, then people will have to rethink what they _know_ about me."

Another constant, he thought, as the girls nodded to themselves while thinking over his words, was that there hadn't yet been a world where Harry wasn't the Boy-Who-Lived. Even if his parents had lived Harry was the one stuck with the fame.

The girls all looked at each other before Daphne relaxed and calmly asked "What is it you wanted to ask us?"

Harry smiled.

* * *

Harry waited patiently as the Sorting continued. He had let himself work on auto-pilot once the Express reach it's destination. He had done this so many times that he had learned to just ignore the parts that never changed unless he actively changed it. He had boarded one of the boats and found that the only one he knew of the three others sharing the trip with him was Michael Corner, a person that Harry never really cared for one way or the other. The kid was an opportunist and Harry wondered how Michael hadn't ended up in Slytherin in any of the repeats.

That was besides the point though, his name was about to be called and Harry wondered what he should do this time. As he made his way towards the three-legged stool as the Great Hall was filled with whispers about the magical world's biggest celebrity since Dumbledore, Harry went over all his options and his own personal opinions.

Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin. Which should it be? Should he go with the Hat's original desire and allow himself to be placed in the House of Salazar? Should he do things quietly this time and defeat all opposition with his intelligence while representing the House of Rowena? Or perhaps unite all of Hogwarts in a great show of unity that would have Helga singing his praise from the afterlife.

_'Decisions, decisions.__'_ He thought as the Hat came down on his head.

It was a few moments later, that Hogwarts received it's first upset of Harry James Potter's arrival.

The Hat, that was _supposed_ to shout out "GRYFFINDOR!" instead shouted out something else.

Inconceivably, the Sorting Hat's wide mouth opened up and with a smirk, announced it's choice.

"IT BETTER BE...!"

* * *

**Thanks for reading. Hope you review**


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